Supermarket Bans Black Man for Questioning Its Policy

(Newser)
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A Maine man says he's pursuing legal action after an unpleasant encounter that smacks of racism, the Hill reports. Rory Ferreira, 26, says he wasn't surprised to be carded Tuesday when buying wine at a Shaw's store in Saco, Maine—but got suspicious when his wife was carded too. "I said that's OK, I didn’t know about the policy, I want to know it's real," Ferreira says he told the store manager, per the Press Herald. "I'm a young black man in America. I want to make sure I’m treated the same as everyone else." That's when Ferreira says the manager lost her cool, told him "I don't have to sell you anything," and tore his grocery bag while taking it away. Ferreira says he kept calm, but got home to find police waiting for him with a no-trespass order barring him from the nearby store.

"It was the scariest thing in the world," says Ferreira. "I'm a young black dude, I got tattoos, I'm a rapper. I did not know what the cop would do." Soon Ferreira's step-dad went to the store, raised his voice with the manager, and found a police officer waiting outside with his no-trespass order. Ferreira's mother, activist Shay Stewart-Bouley, brought media attention to the incident (and tweeted about it), which led to Shaw's meeting with her son, apologizing, and rescinding his order. "I can't say much more but yeah, you can read between the lines since Shaw's also released a statement saying that they will provide additional anti-bias training to their employees," she wrote on Facebook. Ferreira, who raps as Milo, says he's still looking for a lawyer. (Read more racism stories.)